The Barrcast

In this episode of The Barrcast, we introduce the Enneagram One, known as the Reformer. As part of the doing triad, the One is characterized by the passion of anger— not the fighting instinct, but something more primordial, rooted in the frustration caused by the friction between what is and what ought to be. The result is an internal, fiery drive to correct what is perceived as wrong or imperfect.

Talking Points:

🎄 The Divine Memory of PerfectionRichard Rohr’s account of experiencing perfection as a child—a perfectly trimmed Christmas tree—illustrates the One’s simultaneous longing for and burden of enforcing perfection.

🫸 Pushing the RiverThe phrase highlights the One’s tendency to impose their will on the world, striving to reform external contexts rather than adapt to what is.

🧹 Occasional PeaceUnlike other types, Ones sometimes achieve the perfection they seek, but this fleeting success only reinforces their belief in their “special access” to what is right.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of The Barrcast we wrap up the Nine with the self-preservation subtype, a character shaped by “appetite.” Unlike the overt hunger of other types, the Nine’s appetite is a more instinctual desire for comfort, stability, and numbing pacification. We discuss how this appetite manifests not just physically but as an unconscious strategy to avoid the deeper question of being.

Talking Points:

🍽️ I Eat, Therefore I Am

The unique Cartesian expression of the self-preservation Nine reflects a substitution of being with physical satiation. We explore how this subtype’s appetite goes beyond food, encompassing a craving for the mundane comforts of everyday life—sleep, routine, and possession—that mask a deeper existential void.

📺 Life on Standby: The Remote Control Metaphor

Emilia Ligi’s metaphor of living life like a TV on standby mode captures the essence of the self-preservation Nine’s strategy. This subtype often hands over their metaphorical remote control to others, allowing external influences to dictate their experience while they remain passive and disconnected from their true desires.

🪞 The Elusiveness of Presence

Despite their grounded, physical presence, the self-preservation Nine often lacks a metaphysical depth, presenting as elusive or hard to pin down. We explore how this subtype’s tendency to retreat into comfort leads to a life lived on the surface, with little engagement in the deeper currents of self-awareness or transformation.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

(This is an edited transcript of the video)

I’m going to do something a bit self-indulgent here and just riff for a few minutes. I’ve been asking myself: what is this project I’ve been working on for the past 18 months? It started with implementing Internal Family Systems (IFS) in ChatGPT, and now I’m translating Naranjo’s book on the Enneagram subtypes. What connects all this? It’s not like I have a tidy answer. I’ve been doing the work without naming the project, which is the beauty of independent work—you just do stuff and figure out why later. But it feels like it’s time to start naming it.

I think it begins with describing the moment we’re in and the energy behind it. Dreyfus is my guide here, specifically his book What Computers Still Can’t Do the follow-up to his first critique of AI. Dreyfus isn’t around anymore to comment on the current state of affairs, but two quotes from his work frame the urgency I feel right now.

The first quote:

If we are on the threshold of creating artificial intelligence, then we are about to see the triumph of a very special conception of reason. If reason can be programmed into a computer, this will confirm an understanding of man as object, an idea Western thinkers have been moving toward for 2,000 years. But if AI turns out to be impossible, we will have to distinguish human from artificial reason, changing our view of ourselves. Thus, the moment has come either to face the truth of the tradition's deepest intuition or to abandon the mechanical account of man's nature.

The point here is that things are coming to a head. We’re either about to prove that reason – the supposed essence of human nature – is mechanical, or we’re going to have to throw that intuition away. This is 2,000 years of Western philosophy culminating in this moment. It’s a big deal.

But Dreyfus goes further. He argues that this isn’t just a spectator sport where we wait to see who wins. He highlights the deeper issue: our nature is malleable. This malleability, according to Dreyfus, is in fact more core to our nature than pure reason. Here’s the second quote:

Man’s nature is indeed so malleable that it may be on the point of changing again. If the computer paradigm becomes so strong that people begin to think of themselves as digital devices on the model of artificial intelligence, then, since machines cannot be like human beings, human beings may progressively become like machines. The risk is not the advent of superintelligent computers, but of sub-intelligent human beings.

So this isn’t a spectator sport where we observe the outcome from a safe distance. The stakes are existential. We could end up reshaping our own being to fit the machine model, essentially lobotomizing our human faculties to commune better with AI. This self-fulfilling prophecy could have us saying, “Look, machines can reason just like us,” when really we’ve just reduced ourselves to fit their capacities.

I’ve long wanted to play some role in refuting the notion that human nature is mechanistic. But the irony is, I’ve also seen just how mechanistic we already are. So much of our behavior runs on automatic patterning. This is something I’ve encountered thanks to my training in Buddhism, initially through Ken McLeod’s Wake Up to Your Life, and also through working with the Enneagram.

In IFS, we talk about parts—sub-personalities that act like little machines, each with their own job. They have a kind of programmed logic: if they don’t do their job, something terrible will happen. They work tirelessly, often in conflict with each other, like subroutines in a computer program. Despite their human-like qualities, they’re built on stories and instructions. There probably aren’t even that many of them—maybe 200 possible parts, give or take. Through their combinations, we get the full spectrum of human behavior. It’s super programmable.

The Enneagram offers another lens. It’s an architecture of the psyche that lays out nine core ego patterns—or 27 if you include subtypes. Each represents a distinct “pattern imperative,” a kind of automatic rule we live by. For example: Must fit in, can’t stand out. These imperatives drive our thinking, feeling, and doing, and they operate in a mechanistic way. Human reason can’t be pulled out and dropped into a computer program, but much of our reasoning is automatically produced by these stories.

And yet, there’s a non-mechanistic element—the awareness piece, what IFS calls the Self. This is the spacious, loving capacity within us that isn’t ruled by any part. The work in IFS is to become increasingly self-led, to identify more with this capacity than with any single part, no matter how urgent its job feels. When awareness touches a part, something shifts. It’s this non-mechanistic awareness that brings me back to the Enneagram’s spiritual dimension, the upward motion that points to a non-mechanical, mysterious, embodied reality.

We’re at a psycho-spiritual crossroads. Freud’s model of a libido-driven psyche gave way to attachment theory and object relations, focusing on the early templates set by our primary caregivers. But there’s a third stage emerging, one that the Enneagram speaks to more directly. It acknowledges that our character structures—these patterned imperatives—are built on flimsy, ungrounded stories. They persist because part of us maintains the illusion that they’re real, that they stand on solid ground. This is what Naranjo calls the ontic vacuum—a kind of emptiness or void at the core of our character structure.

The inner work is about dismantling this, facing the void, and discovering that there’s more to us than these stories. It’s scary, sure—it feels like looking into the abyss. But both IFS and the Enneagram create a framework for this exploration, helping us see that there’s an abiding presence capable of being with and holding the most intense experiences.

So what’s the project? It’s about creating an architecture of the psyche that can be mirrored by machines in a way that helps us see our own automatic processes. By holding up this mirror, we can reclaim our true, non-mechanistic nature. The goal isn’t to program humanity into machines but to use the reflection to help us break free from our conditioned behaviors and stories.

“Buddha nature is what remains when the confusion of samsara is cleared away.” -KM

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In this episode of the Barrcast, we explore the Sexual Nine, a character defined by their drive for “symbiosis” or deep fusion with others. The Sexual Nine’s yearning for union stems from a profound sense of disconnection within themselves, leading them to seek a complete merging with others as a way to feel whole. Topics include: the difference between true connection and codependent fusion; the neurotic game of symbiosis as a substitute for true selfhood; and the Sexual Nine’s journey toward reclaiming their autonomy and discovering genuine intimacy.

Talking points:

🕶️ The “Nowhere Man” – how the Sexual Nine’s tendency to fade into the background, becoming invisible in relationships, stems from an unwillingness to occupy their own sense of self.

🦁 The “lion’s roar,” in which the nine incorporates their eight wing to pronounce No to some way of life that cannot go on any longer, creating space for the Yes.

🌱 Reclaiming Self in Relationships. The shift from seeking union through others to building self-worth independently, allowing for real partnership and mutual respect.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the Barrcast, we get to know the Social Nine, a character defined by their need for “participation” or “belonging.” The Social Nine’s longing to belong stems from a chronic feeling of not fitting in, leading them to overcompensate by taking on roles that make them indispensable to the group. Topics include: the self-sacrificing, good-natured qualities of the Social Nine; their tendency to avoid personal emotions in favor of maintaining group harmony; and the driving need to feel included, even if it means working tirelessly to earn a sense of acceptance.

Talking points:

🐘 The “elephant skin” of the Social Nine, a thick protective layer that shields them from responding to their environment in ways that may threaten homeostasis

꩜ The existential void a Social Nine is confronted with when an anchoring relationship is removed

🏋️‍♀️ How practices that build the capacity to be with anger, fear, and other emotions help in the transformation process

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the Barrcast, we introduce the Nine, a personality type often described as peaceful and self-forgetting. Positioned at the top of the Enneagram, the Nine is sometimes considered the "baseline" type, able to look down on with unique challenges in self-awareness and motivation.

Key Points:

* Nines possess a unique ability to empathize and see the perspectives of other Enneagram types but often struggle to assert their own identity.

* The nine’s “sloth” is more than lethargy; it represents a resistance to inner change and personal awakening.

* By avoiding conflict, nines may ultimately face physical or emotional burnout, especially when life calls for decisive self-awareness.

Quotes from the Episode:

* “Nine is the least egoic, the least motivated to change. It’s as if the nine is asleep to their own needs.”

* “Self-forgetting only works for so long…eventually, life requires us to be an ‘I’ capable of making decisions.”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the Barrcast, we explore the Self-Preservation Eight, whose passion is “satisfaction”—a need driven by survival and self-interest. Topics include: the lion-like nature of the Self-Preservation Eight, their pursuit of security and control; how they express strength through commanding loyalty; the reasons behind their instinct for protection and their rejection of love and the good. We examine the challenges the Eight faces in letting go of material and emotional control, and the transformative potential of embracing vulnerability and trust.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the Barrcast, we dive into the Sexual Eight, whose core passion is “possessiveness.” Topics include the voraciousness of the Sexual Eight, their intense need for control, power, and autonomy and their tendency toward detachment from intellect. Discussion touches on their amoral perspective – it’s right because I do it – and how their need for power manifests in a vicious cycle of possession and isolation.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the Barrcast, we look into the Social Eight, whose passion is “complicity;” a particular flavor of friendship that is defined by teaming up against a shared enemy. Topics include: the rebellious yet loyal nature of the Social Eight, the origins of their opposition to authority; how they defend their loved ones through intense and paradoxical behavior; the motivations behind their drive for protection, solidarity, and justice.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com

In this episode of the BarrCast, we start our journey into the gut triad, starting with the Eight. Topics covered include: the passion of lust in type eight, their need for intensity, and the psychological underpinnings behind their pursuit of justice, autonomy, and dominance.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barrcast.substack.com